Edward Snowden releases Haven security app

Whistleblower Edward Snowden, together with the Freedom of the Press Foundation and the Guardian Project, has released an open source app that uses the smartphone for the detection of danger. The app is aimed at use by, for example, whistleblowers or journalists.

Haven uses the sensors of a smartphone to detect anomalous situations, which could indicate that an intruder is busy near the device. For example, the accelerometer can detect movement, the light sensor can detect differences in ambient light and the microphone can detect sound.

According to an editor of The Intercept, who is on the board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a smartphone with the app can be placed on a laptop with secrets, for example, if the user has to leave it unattended in a hotel room. As soon as someone tries to break into the laptop, the smartphone takes pictures, records sound and can send an alert to the user’s primary smartphone.

That warning can be sent encrypted, via Signal. The user can also connect via Tor to view the logs of the smartphone. Haven’s development is at an early stage and one of the issues involved is high levels of false positives, with false warnings being issued.

Edward Snowden, chairman of the Freedom of the Press foundation, has the app with his team and the Guardian Project on the Play Store released. In addition, it can be installed via Fdroid and the source code is placed on Github.